Thursday, December 31, 2009

Maggie Q's life & career:

Margaret Denise Quigley, better known as Maggie Q (Chinese: 李美琪; pinyin: Lǐ Měiqí, Vietnamese: Lý Mỹ Kỳ (Lei Mei-Kei); born May 22, 1979), is a Hawaiian-born actress and former fashion model. She initially gained fame in Hong Kong.
Early life:
Maggie Q was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to an American father of Polish, French Canadian and Irish descent, and a Vietnamese mother. Her parents met while her father was stationed in Vietnam. Maggie is the youngest of five children. She has two sisters and two half-siblings from her mother's previous marriage in Vietnam. After graduating from Mililani High School, she traveled to Japan and Hong Kong to become a fashion model. In 1998, she got her first role in a Chinese-language television series.

Career:
She began acting in Hong Kong and elsewhere in East Asia. Because of her non-Chinese heritage, many of her Asian film appearances are in English or dubbed in Chinese languages. She has, however, stated that she took Mandarin and Cantonese lessons during her career in Asia and is able to speak both languages in varying degrees. Among her first appearances in film was the lead roles in the Hong Kong action thrillers Gen-Y Cops and Naked Weapon, in which she played the martial artist assassin Charlene Ching. She has also played the titular role of Harmony in the German-Singapore telemovie collaboration Das Haus Der Harmonie, opposite leading Singaporean actress Fann Wong.
In 2006, she starred alongside Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible III. She played Zhen, the only female member of the IMF team. In 2007, she appeared in the Bruce Willis movie Live Free or Die Hard, the fourth film in the Die Hard series, and in Balls of Fury.
In 2008, Maggie played fictional Cao Ying, a granddaughter of the warlord Cao Cao in Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon, in her first Chinese ancient costume performance.
She also stars in the video game in the Need for Speed franchise Need for Speed: Undercover as Inspector Chase Linh who is the player's only contact to the Tri-City Police.
She changed her name to Maggie Q for easier pronunciation by Chinese audiences.

Personal life:
Maggie Q has been in the past romantically linked to actor-singer Firdaus, Edison Chen, Daniel Henney and Japanese soccer player Hidetoshi Nakata.
Maggie Q, who is vegetarian, is a strong supporter of PETA Asia-Pacific. She featured in two advertisements for the organization in 2007. In addition, Maggie was responsible for the removal of real fur from the costumes/set of the Chinese film Three Kingdoms. In 2007, PETA Asia-Pacific named Maggie Q its 'Person of the Year'. In 2008, the organization named Maggie Q one of the best-dressed celebrities of the year. Maggie does, however, eat seafood.
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